Take it easy, this is a discussion board. I liked your little tutorial, but was also wondering that the difference was between your method and, say, an Acronis Trueimage backup (which is also pretty fast). But this is not meant as criticism!! I always like to have different options for doing something, so thanks, and more thanks. (BTW, I also use PE..)
Are you ok/well? why do I find that it might be necessary to preface any future comments concerning you with "this is not criticism but merely a suggestion" ? ..
sorry, just agitated... it doesn't seem like people read around here any more before they post. it's a epidemic on these message boards. i never noticed it as a problem here before now though. aside from that, i'm not completely clueless about this stuff either...
that's actually something I was going to add... there's no real benefit that I can see from using this method or any other imaging method. it's just a different method. but the compression of .wim images is just slightly more than i've seen with other imaging methods i've used personally. i used to prefer using paragon for all my imaging needs, and i still do use it, but for an XP install, creating a .wim makes the smallest single file archive for me, where I can have one single file image of a completely customized and updated XP installed system, and fit it on one dvd (no dual layer) along with my PE. that to me is it's greatest benefit. A paragon image of a 8GB XP install is most always over 4.5 or 5GB in size for me at highest compression. This is too large for a single dvd. using imagex, i've had an 10Gb install use only 4GB for a .wim. It's just a method I prefer for returning to a base XP install on my own system and have it on one dvd. thought others might like it too. also, if one is just using imagex without the gui, then one can easily just make a single script to do both backup and restore operations on a machine that loads and runs immediately at boot of the PE if they wanted, as imagex switches are simple. this can also be used to make a recovery partition where the PE is booted from the disk and such scripts run at boot and then one has a very professional-like recovery partition on their machine.
I understand what you are saying and know you are for sure not clueless I honestly hope things improve for you